The Toronto Raptors had their three-game winning streak shattered Friday night in a 121-115 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Jakob Poeltl was the leading scorer for Toronto for just the second time this season, contributing 23 points, 11 rebounds, and two steals on 10-for-14 shooting against three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. 

After holding a nine-point lead through three quarters, the Raptors failed to contain All-Star Jamal Murray, who supplied 12 points and three assists in the final period. The Canadian National Team member finished as the game’s leading scorer with 31 points, six assists, and five rebounds on 55.6% shooting. 

This matchup with a top-10 team in the NBA had a different feeling than the majority of this season for the Raptors. With a record of 2-19 against such teams, outside of the  Cleveland Cavaliers, the defensive intensity was at its best for Toronto, despite the fourth-quarter collapse. 

Nuggets head coach David Adelman spoke to his team in the locker room postgame and gave significant credit to the Raptors. 

“That’s a playoff-type of win,” said Adelman. “That’s a playoff team, they play like one … Throughout the game, only 10 turnovers against that team is outrageously, outrageously good.”

Defense has not been an area of struggle for the Raptors this season; they possess the seventh-best defensive rating in the league with 113.1 (via StatMuse) and fifth-best opposing fourth-quarter points per game with 26.5. The problem is the offense regularly stagnating, specifically in the fourth quarter. Although an offensive rating of 115.2 (14th in the NBA, via StatMuse) is right around league average, their 25.9 fourth-quarter points per game ranks last in the league. 

While it may be one of the most underrated factors in winning late in the season, experience has truly been the downfall for the Raptors this season. They have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, and while they are on a path to end that streak this season, they regularly come up short late in games against top teams. Defense wins championships, as the saying goes, but without a consistent late-game offense, it puts insurmountable pressure on scoring in the first three quarters. 

Late-game offenses come in many different shapes and sizes. Some of the top teams go to their primary scorer, ball-handler, and playmaker, if they have a player who can be all three. Others go to different sets that play to the team’s strengths and lead to easy baskets, rather than relying on jump-shooting. A few teams go to a type of offense they haven’t run all game to try to throw off the defense.

For the Raptors, none of these are in effect when it matters most. Their primary scorer is obviously Brandon Ingram, but he is not the best playmaker on the floor. Teams regularly hone their defense in on the former Duke Blue Devil in the fourth quarter, forcing him to have to make a play or find the open man, usually to no avail. 

It seems that Ingram shouldn’t be to blame for this, though; the Raptors greatly lack spacing and off-ball screening or movement late in games. One of the worst identities to have in basketball is being a ball-watcher, and Toronto’s lineup consists of late-game ball-watchers, waiting for the ball to come to them instead of getting themselves open. 

Whether it’s an ego problem or not is difficult to determine. It may be safe to assume that it is truly a lack of experience that causes this detrimental problem, rather than the players just wanting the ball for themselves. Either way, the Raptors need to find some sort of identity offensively if they want to succeed in the playoffs, especially if they end up facing 11-time All-Star James Harden (173 career playoff games) and the new-look Cavaliers.